Getting JEEP out of the showroom

MARK WIGNALL

Thursday, February 09, 2012

In the year before the general election, it was the major concern as it was in the month before the PNP swept to power.

Weeks after the December 29 election, it remains the major complaint among voters and many non-voters. Jobs. Lack of them.

It makes little sense to suggest that those at the bottom of this society have always had it bad and have become inured to tough times, in an effort to justify that little will change for them. There must be new, progresive thinking on this after 50 years of doing things the same way.

In the latter part of last year the leader of the JLP - then Prime Minister Andrew Holness - made an unprecedented move by telling the people that tough times were ahead. What sort of an approach was that in making a pitch for his party's re-election? Now we know.

At the same time the then Opposition PNP did what all Opposition parties are expected to do. Capitalise on the government's weaknesses, and if the government promises cake, present the image of a bigger one with icing on top. The PNP promised "nice times" and JEEP (Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme). The JLP promised "continuity" at a time when continuity to the man at street level meant that he and his woman would remain where they were - jobless and mired in hopelessness.

That along with the JLP administration's inability to carry an understanding of the poor man's plight as part of its campaign message gave the PNP the victory.

Last week, a gleeful JLP activist, still smarting at his party's wipeout on December 29, suggested to me and others, including PNP supporters that "it look like di JEEP crash"!

Unlike in the days leading up to the elections when PNP supporters were gung-ho on JEEP, this time they fell silent.

I told my JLP activist friend that I disagreed with him about the crashed JEEP. "A vehicle can only be involved in a collision when it is on the road. The JEEP is still in the showroom," I said. He laughed. I did not, and the PNP supporters looked away but it told me something. In just a few weeks, the patience on JEEP is being tested, and before it wears thin people would rather say nothing.

Apart from receipts from tourism, bauxite, piecemeal exports and the saviour - remittances - the static money supply in Jamaica moves around, in wages, salaries to the poorer set and then back to uptown where it tends to find longer lodging. With nothing visible in the pipeline on new investments, increasingly Jamaica is forced to attach itself to those countries with resources (Venezuela - PetroCaribe, China - purchasing geopolitical space and influence) in our new and dressed-up mendicancy.

As the need for employment among the poorest remains, the politicians have carefully avoided to attach numbers and costs to JEEP, as I have done, simply because those numbers and costs are quite frightening.

Last week I asked a number of young men a damn foolish question: "If money earmarked for roads was diverted to finance the JEEP, would you prefer jobs or better roads?"

Down to a man, the answer was jobs. None of them owned cars so that question was highly redundant. When I told them that it was unlikely that any employment programme could last beyond a year and suggested that when it ended the road network would still be in shambles, one said, "Den nuh so di ting run. Jamaica road always mash dung."

We know that JEEP has gone to Parliament, hopefully for ventilation and not for interment. We know that no one in the ruling PNP administration has dared to mention the numbers that are likely to be involved and the attendant costs, but the question is, why. Maybe even that question is redundant simply because the answers are staring us in the face.

Even if the most needy set of constituents are selected for JEEP, and let's say they number 1,000 per constituency, that would be 63,000 in total. At minimum wage (rounded out) that would be over $300 million per week! For how long would that be sustainable?

Consider also that numbers less than 1,000 per constituency would be madness when the reality is that in some constituencies the unemployed are in the region of 12,000!

Anything less than 1,000 per constituency would lead to chaos and mass political victimisation. Even if there was some attempt to ensure that JLP supporters shared in the work, activist PNP supporters would rise up in protest under the "fi wi time now" banner that is operating as I write.

The question is, are the Chinese that interested in us that they would make available to us significant loan amounts on jobs that are likely to have little value-added? Or would they be prepared to attach to grant funding as part of larger projects to assist the present administration in meeting its political objectives and the country's pressing social needs?

I am fully in support of any programme that alleviates the plight of the man and woman at street level, but I am also forced to be realistic.

The bigger question is, was the PNP being realistic when it proposed JEEP in September last year, and is it now caught on the horns of a dilemma - it has caught the car but it has no idea what to do with it?

observemark@gmail.com

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COMMENTS (20)

Gary Holness
2/15/2012

Some of the comments to this article are indicative of the root issues in JA. The article outlined several facts and many of the critics have ignored them, mierly suggesting that the 18yr gvnt had left a well oiled economic machinery with booming industries. Listen, what we are seeing is the "story come to bump" realization. These are not issues that started 4yrs ago. The Jcan economy has been long strictened with a cancer called "POLITICKS" and I am afraid that we might not be able to recover.

Gary Holness
2/15/2012

This is an excellent article!!!.. I have long possed this very argument to my friends and very few seem to see what i felt was so clear. It is such a shame that the average Jcan are so desperate for help that they are delusional. We cant seem to think clearly. Jamaica has a very serious leadership problem on both sides, makes you wonder if its deliberate or pure incompitence. Well, another 5yrs to go before anoher election, WHERE will we be and WHO will we choose??? Is there one among you??

dev march
2/12/2012

It would appear , befitting of the saying, "you got a dragon by the tail". Poor old Jamaica a dragon it is. Michael Manley said "The solution to the problem became a problem". Will Jamaica go "up the down escalator?" Will Jamaica borrow, and when she fall out with the friend who lend to her because she cannot pay, will she just find another friend to borrow from. Who will "Bell the Cat" so that the "mouse" can eat?

Chelm News
2/10/2012

You know Jeff, maybe the PNP proposed JEEP just because they knew the JLP wouldn't dare reveal that all the JDIP money was done. This also meant that when or if it failed the fact that it was based on the premise of JDIP money being available guess where the accountability rests? I doubt the JLP is happy the lost, its the nature of politics, nobody wants to be in opposition. All they could do was call it crash work, even though the JLP was presently engaged and was to engage in 'crash work'.

Jeff Williams
2/10/2012

"The bigger question is, was the PNP being realistic when it proposed JEEP in September last year...."
NO....They were in opposition and the PNP is power hungry. They would say ANYTHING to get elected. JEEP, Buggery Law, Press fredom and etc.
I really think that deep down, the JLP is a bit happy that the PNP won this one!

Fabian Williams
2/9/2012

let's accept the fact that jeep is merely an amalgamation of several existing public works projects under a single name. It nothing but a bogus scheme designed to deceive and fool people.

RED ANTS
2/9/2012

Holiness knew the mess his government put the country into for him to promise the bitter medicine.if these labourites would remove their heads from their rear end they would notice Man a yard haven't made a statement 24 hours after PP made all these disclosure.The JLP did not deliver on Jobs Jobs and more Jobs in 4 yrs,Labourites are hoping the same happen to JEEP.@TS! The thought everybody in Jamaica would be rich by now base on Bruce promise to get every thing done in his 1st one hundred days

Ras Benji
2/9/2012

Well Thought out Mark, and probably 90% accurate. Time will Tell! ... Wanda Woeman, Is there any objectivity in your faculties? Can you think and understand that Jamaica is bigger (and better) than a (any) political party?
One Love!

Chelm News
2/9/2012

The JLP remained mum even though they could have revealed that JEEP was a non-starter simply because the 25% of JDIP funds the PNP was banking on was non-existent. They didn't use that fact against the PNP simply because this revelation of JDIP money being all but done or tied up in the first year or the 5-year program the populace would raise eyebrows. Other less effective methods were used to discredit the JEEP. The JEEP's late start will therefore not be deemed as a failure of the PNP

Chelm News
2/9/2012

As a non-partisan reader I find Mr. Wignall to be less than objective most times. I however still enjoy the columns and read them to get 'the other side of the story' after reading another column that is also lacking in objectivity. From the above Mark is correct re JEEP being in the showroom and I could add that it is missing some parts, but that aside I believe the PNP will get it on the road. Whether is travels a distance of 10 or 100 miles once it drives the promise is fulfilled.

wanda woeman
2/9/2012

The PNP must set the machinery in motion to lock up all those people who stole from the public purse and then we will see who and who have the big chat. If they were in there for another term they would have wrecked the economy.
Why they don't talk about the government prosperity that was reportedly wrecked.
They are are bunch of you know what.

Wayne L
2/9/2012

Do you notice how the comrades who have responded to Marks column spend the space beating on him rather than analyze the content of the column? They cannot refute his argument so the next best thing is to level attacks.
Mark, your column is very inciteful. If many of these comrades would take their head out of their rear end, they would see the truth in what you are writing.

Noel Richards
2/9/2012

The perceived openness on the part of Perter Phillips did not last long, he is now trying to buy time. The insistence on JEEP is solidly indicative of a Governing party that has no idea what it is doing, it is winging it. They have been given more than enough time to show their hand, and it's definitely a Busted Flush. There are ways that J'cans can find the resources, externally, to finance true development. What is tragic is that the "leaders" have only "developed" the ability to beg.

Tom Stroke
2/9/2012

Is this the sort of column we should be reading a few weeks after a landslide victory by the PNP? So where is the “help that is on the way” that Mama P was shouting from the campaign platform? This early in the game, should we not be skipping down Half Way Tree Rd, clicking our heels and saying yippee? Given the figures presented by this writer, for 1000 people paid at minimum wage, this pie in the sky JEEP program will last 4000000000 / 300000000 = 13.33 weeks. So what will happen for the weeks remaining in this 5 yrs cycle when the next election is due?

Tajai Grant
2/9/2012

Good article mark, what did the PNP expect to find in the coffers? Were they really expect to see a surplus. They are just been hypocrites. They didn't leave anything there in 07, plus their was the recession and the highly PNP sympathizer public service was woefully under paid and the unions were like vultures the moment the JLP won. Just listen keenly to what Dr. Phillips says were the causes for the short fall.

Andrea Watson
2/9/2012

Mark never fails to deliver. To his delight the JEEP cant move what is interesting is that Mark know dat people tief d gas money but he is so so bias him cant even say it. Just like some of mothers who know dem boys a terror but would blame everybody else for any wrong that might be commited by them. What Mark no know is that people are aware of what a gwaan so just like how him columns never influenced people to vote his way dem wont cause rational people to look at Jeep through his eyes.

diehardr sickheads
2/9/2012

The pnp cannot run a political economy as they might have thought
The choices they face are not popular ones unlike the jlp dont curse the people with bitter medicine, just laugh with them and give them the medicine.by the way without the new buses would not have jutc lay off workers,if the civil servants did not get their money there would be civil unrest how much is the cost overrun at jdip .peter your party help to influence the 10 billion dollar deficit .milwood money 5mil/day counting

robert heath
2/9/2012

The problem I have is that the PNP is encapsulated in a 1 project JEEP and they should but this hard line assessment was absent with JOBS, JOBS, JOBS we were repeatedly bombarded by the last 18 years, so is it not fair to allow the PNP some time as every week a new scandals are unearthed that happened the last 4 years

fall mouth
2/9/2012

Wiggy seems to be the only columnist who is always speaking to these nebulous people who nobody can identify. So nobody knows whether in fact there was this gleeful JLP activist or these young men.who he always seem to be surrounded by.
The texture of this column seems to suggest that he is much more gleeful than the JLP activist. By the way, when did he submit this article, doesn't he know why the JEEP can't leave the showroom. In any case it is better than being in the garage.

wanda woeman
2/9/2012

The then Prime Minister made his tough times ahead statement because he well knew that the funds had been depleted by a reckless and uncaring government who ran amok with the JDIP funds like the proverbial bull in a china shop.
It is no use for the “gleeful JLP activist” to gloat, as the writer well knows, because of what the JLP did to the country. To me it is much like the big foot man who rapes the virgin and boasts to his friends of the damage he had caused to her both physically and psychologically. Many people should be sent to prison..

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Getting JEEP out of the showroom